Black Clay Vessel bonded with leather belt || Mexico

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( X) D4 J& ?* C% R! DThe term "Black Clay" might be misleading because the clay used in making the pottery is not black itself. The pottery gets its polished black surface not by glaze or paint, but from the firing and polishing technique. Skilled potters using a special firing technique, called “reduction,” add fuel to the fire and then seal the kiln. The bowl or jar is dried in the sun and burnished with a stone or shard. The pottery is embellished with intricate patterns, burnished smooth, then fired in a reducing atmosphere until the correct temperature is reached when normal, oxygen-containing air is admitted for a critical period of about five minutes. Precise temperature and time definition is difficult because this process is an intuitive one, dependent on the skill of the potter. Prior to firing, the item is polished with a smooth stone. Many pots have a design that is painstakingly cut out by hand.
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